Small World

I spent my last night in Scotland in the Marriot. A cloud-like bed, more pillows than even I knew what to do with, and a fantastic bathtub.  Today I moved into my new home for the next two and a half months. A hostel in Entebbe. A little different than the Marriot, but just as comfortable and just as perfect for me.

I looked into renting my own apt or staying in a guesthouse, but everything I found was too expensive and I didn’t really want to be alone. I contemplated staying with a host family, but wanted the freedom of living on my own. I also wasn’t sure if I had the energy to become a part of another family and leave only a few weeks later. Finally, I knew I would be working a lot on my school papers and research projects for my internship, so I didn’t want to be locked in my room on my computer the entire time I would be in a familiy’s house. So, a hostel it was. And what a good decision that was.

I currently have my own bedroom at the hostel and just share the bathrooms. It’s perfect. When I need to work, I go in my room. When I want to be around people, I go to the main room and have plenty of people to spend time with. The staff is amazing. So friendly and warm, and so far I haven’t encountered any atrocious travellers who feel entitled to do whatever they want however they want. There is also a lady, Gertrude, who comes at to sell her banana leaf products. I’m hoping she’ll eventually be willing to teach me how to make something. You may all be getting banana leaf wallets and placemats when I return. Just what you wanted I’m sure.

Today was a good day. I didn’t start my internship today because of the luggage hassle and my move to the hostel. I will start tomorrow. But, today I got to explore a bit more and I had eaten and slept and it hit me that I was in Uganda. It was perfect.

When I was walking back to the hostel I met a lady on the street who said she had seen me at the hostel earlier. She asked me if I wanted to go to dinner. I said sure. She is from L.A. She is also Filipina. i know it’s cliché, but, it’s such a small world. This lady was born and raised in Dinaluphian (sp?). Dinaluphian is a very small town in the middle of Bataan. Many Filipinos don't even know where it is. It is also the town my host mom during training grew up in. One weekend we went there for some relatives birthday celebrations. I learned how to ride a water buffalo in Dinaluphian.

This woman worked as a nurse for UNHCR with Vietnamese refugees. Her family needed help with money, so she moved to L.A. to be a nurse 19 years ago. Since then all the relatives she was supporting have since gone on to finish school, freeing her up from her job in L.A. She now hopes to go back to UNHCR. She said she’s burnt out of life in L.A. and complained extensively of the traffic. She came here to volunteer at an orphanage for a month. This woman is one of the most genuine, insightful, compassionate and smart ladies I’ve ever met.

She told me several stories from the orphanage. As with far too many organizations, there was immense corruption within the orphanage. Apparently the founder isn’t the nicest guy and all the kids are terrified of him. For example, the teenage girls don’t have any sanitary products for their periods. Past volunteers said they would donate some, but the girls haven’t received them. As is a problem in far too much of the world, girls can’t go to school when they are on their periods due to a lack of sanitary products. This woman did something that a lot of organizations are starting to do (I’m hoping to spend some time with Afripads later in August to learn more about all of this) and helped the girls sew their own reusable pads. Pretty great, right?

Well, the girls didn’t want the founder to find out cause they said he would take them away. They said he wants everything that comes to the orphanage to go through him. Staff and students alike complained to her about the founder taking things and the students never receiving what people have told them they donated. The girls didn’t want this to happen with their new products, but they were also terrified he would find out what they were doing and punish them. So, in the middle of the night, in secret, this lady and the girls sewed their pads. She said the girls were shaking and sweating the entire time until they were finished.

She also said that she brought medical supplies and saw the nurse selling them to people in the community instead of giving them to the children. Same with the porridge. She saw that the porridge was mostly water. One morning she went to the kitchen to watch the staff prepare it and saw them giving two giant containers of mill away to some man she had never seen at the orphanage before. It’s a tough place to be. What do you do? Maybe the money they got from selling it is going to supplies for the kids? As a foreigner who is only in town for a couple weeks, when do you speak up and when do you let people carry on as usual?

We talked a lot about corruption both in the Philippines and here within schools and NGO’s. Everyone is aware and upset about corruption at the political level, but most people like to trust NGO’s and schools. I know I’ve written about this a lot before, so I won’t start ranting again, but it’s really upsetting. One of the best books I’ve ever read is called “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katerine Boo (I think that was the author…). She wrote it over a four year time period that she spent living in a Mumbai slum. She has some great insights into corruption at all levels. It’s a very real book that demonstrates the lack of black and white lines when discussing and responding to corruption. I can’t do her book justice, so if you have time on your hands and are looking for something to read check it out. It’s beautiful and convicting and powerful and raw.

Tomorrow I start my internship. I’ll write more about it once I know what I’m doing. What I know right now is I’m in way over my head. I’ll be working with Global Water Partnership alongside the Nile Basin Initiative. Both are doing, from my perspective, some pretty amazing, and challenging, work.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for today.